Chronicling my journey back from fighting cancer and my mission to lift as many lives as possible

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Latitude Update

Very exciting news to share. In addition to recently celebrating my 5th wedding anniversary with my wife and son in downtown Chicago, on December 8th I celebrated the one year mark since my last chemotherapy treatment.

Wow does that feel nice to say.

A lot has happened during the year to say the least. One of the things I am most proud of is the Latitude concept I rolled out earlier this year. For those of you who are unaware, here is the original launch post: Latitude Announcement.

In short, your Latitude is a place you mentally escape to when you are stressed or in a situation you would rather not want to be in at the current moment. Think of it as a highly nostalgic place or feeling you default to when day dreaming. For me, it was a place I thought of frequently when going through a chemo treatment or in recovery at home on the couch.

While not everyone in the world thinks of the word "Latitude" in this way, it is my intention to change that. Over the past year the Latitude concept pops up on a frequent basis, often cloaked in another form such as a Corona commercial:

Or the lyrics of a Coldplay song ("Paradise"):

Life goes on, it gets so heavy

The wheel breaks the butterfly

Every tear a waterfall

In the night, the stormy night she'll close her eyes

In the night, the stormy night away she'd fly

And dream of para-para-paradise

My theory is that if we can spend more time in our lives practicing the emotions associated with our Latitude we can lift our lives above the stresses that inhibit our growth as individuals and as a society.

Some great friends, family members and complete strangers helped me launch the Latitude concept by writing entries on http://www.whatsyourlatitude.com/. I am happy to announce that we are continuing the Latitude love beginning this Thursday where we will hear about my buddy Jon's Latitude, which is just tremendously written.

Also, as a holiday/re-launch special, all shirts on http://www.latitudeapparel.com/ will be 50% off through the end of the year and as always include a $5 donation to the associated charity.

Come check out the Latitude website this Thursday, be sure to hit the Facebook "Like" button, and tell all your friends!